Avatar: Story of the World: Water
by Estrella Tallinfoot
Summary: READ THIS THIRD The story of how the world began as Earthbending, Airbending, Waterbending, and Firebending emerge among past animal gods.


Avatar: The Last Airbender

Story of the World

Water

_700 years after King Amu's tyranny, and 1000 years after Nusair's discovery of the power of wind, the earth was dry. It was not barren, and it was not desolate, but it was simply dry. Some animals had kept their fur and moved North, where the wind was bitter, and they had to keep themselves warm with something, and others simply lost their fur and became reptilian, with small, beady eyes and scaly, hard skin. Most of the birds were now like this, except for the four greater falcons, of course, who lived in the far East, West, North, and South, controlling the winds as their mother had taught them. _

_Now the birds that had become reptilians still had their wings, although they had become hard and scaly like their bodies. Every different type of bird had a different body shape, wing shape, color, size, etc., although their manners were not the same brutal behaviors they were 1000 years ago – they were slightly more civilized, while there always had to be a few of the nasty type stealing food and challenging the others. They were to be called 'dragons' by the later folk, so that is what we shall call them for the time being. _

_As I said before, the dragons came in different shapes, sizes and types. There was one particular dragon who was not made for the dry, brown earth. His name was Kamin, and he was the color green. Green was not the best color to be in a dry, brown earth, where the predators were plentiful, and the animals had to either absorb or reflect the sunlight. His eyes were large and long tentacles protruded from his nose. They were constantly dehydrated, and Kamin was forever trying to find a small, pitiful watering hole to refresh his poor extremities. He had very small arms and wings, and they did not support his long, long body. He was considered a weakling, and he forever had to hide from the creatures who constantly hunted him. _

_When he was not running or hiding, Kamin loved to come out at night, and gaze at the moon. He would stare for hours and just study its habits, its feelings, its love to give the darkest night its faintest hope – light. _

_One night, while being chased by one of the fiercer creatures of the desert, Kamin had finally had enough. He sprinted off the edge of a cliff, unfurled his scrawny wings and scraped his puny arms through the air as he took a leap of faith up, up, up towards the sky, where the graceful moon was waiting, her patient face hypnotizing the struggling dragon to her beautiful appearance. Kamin struggled and scrambled, beating his furious wings as he glided…not so gracefully through the clouds and the stars for what seemed like forever. He once in a while had to dodge behind a cloud for of course there were other dragons flying about on that night, but he never stopped, going past where souls soar into the heavens, and almost reaching where the two gods lived and reigned. Then, finally at the last few meters, he thrust his full body into the final length, and crashed head-first into the salient moon. Scrabbling for a hold on her slippery surface, he found a small claw-hold, but this piece of the moon was coming out anyways, and soon it broke off in a huge chunk, and fell to earth as a very big meteor. _

_It crashed into the ground with a resounding _thud_, and Kamin shuddered in sorrow and fear as the screams and wails of the animals pierced through the clouds as their homes were decimated in the terrible disaster. A great plume of dust came up through the clouds, although it stopped right about 500 feet below him, and that's where it stayed. After 30 days, the weeping of the animals stopped, for they had all died from suffocation and starvation. _

_The cloud faded away, and Kamin saw for the first time what he had done. The ground was littered with dead bodies and corpses, their eyes wide open and glazed over, with tongues lolling out of their mouths as they gasped for their final breaths (which happened long ago), with the occasional skeleton covered in dust. Some spirits still wandered the plain, searching for their mothers, or loved ones, or bodies – just for something to hold onto as they roamed their wasteland of a home. _

"_What have I done?" he whispered, and hung his head. _

_Then the moon did something unexpected. She started to cry. Droplets of rain began to fall from the hole in her side, and soon it became a stream, a flow, a river, and then water poured from her very core, and it descended upon the dry grave until it covered it in a small puddle, then flooded the whole earth. _

"_Oh, my moon, you have made everything better, you have covered this ugliness I have made. How am I to repay you for my mistake?" he said lovingly into her. _

_Her reply came into him_, This is my earth. _And she sent Kamin down – down, down, down, plummeting into the ocean below. He hit the water and scrambled frantically to the surface, screaming, "Moon! My moon, help me! I cannot swim in this great blue water!" _

You must learn_, came the kindly reply. And so he did. His tentacles grew long, and his wings disappeared, as did his arms. His tail became fishlike, and he swam the seas, mastering the art of controlling the water with long fluid motions of his body and tail. He loved being by himself with no predators to prey upon him and kill him. He could finally gaze upon his beautiful moon without having to look behind his shoulder twice. _

_The effect did not last, though. After a while, Kamin did not enjoy being all by himself on the lonely planet. "Oh, my precious moon," he called one night to her, "I do not take pleasure in being all by myself on this lonely planet – perhaps some friends will lighten my poor spirit." _

But my love, if I send animals to this earth, they will either drown in this endless sea, or kill you as they tried to do in the past_, came the sorrowful reply. _

"_I would rather be killed and actually have something to live for than to swim forever and have nothing."_

Very well_, said the heartrending moon. And she called upon the two gods, Amu and Nusair. The badgermole-god Amu used his great earthbending powers, and brought forth the ground from underneath Kamin's feet and shaped it until he was satisfied with what he had created. Then the graceful falcon-goddess Nusair raised her beautiful wings and thrust them forward, her air catching animals of all sorts from different worlds and bringing them to the planet. _

_Kamin looked at his surroundings for the first time. The planet was green, all sorts of greens, from the color of himself (which was a frothy sea-green) to the darkest shadow-green, which was where only the darkest ferns grew. There were plants and vines and trees growing on every island to the point where they were almost pushing themselves into the sea. And now there were animals. Great beasts pawed at the freshly created ground, and others simply shook themselves off and carried on with whatever they were doing before they had been taken to this beautiful land. There were monkeys hanging from the trees, and armadillos burrowing under the earth. Falcons and birds flew freely in the skies and some small dragons soared alongside them. But as Kamin surveyed what he had persuaded his moon to do, his heart almost skipped a beat as he saw what else was shaking himself off in the dirt. It was a man. Soon three other men joined them, and so did three women and two of their cubs. _

"_Oh my moon, have I made the wrong choice?" he cried up into the heavens. _

What's done is done_, replied the moon. _

"_You're right, what I have done has been decided," he reasoned. "And I am proud." And for the first time since he was a small baby, Kamin roared. He roared with a thunderous sound that frightened all of the animals (including the man), but Kamin kept on roaring. He had to stop to breathe though, and when he did, he smiled. Then, diving back into the water, he flipped his tail above his head and manipulated the water to reflect the moon. His one true love. _

_Of course later on, this art would be seen by man, but it wouldn't be fully recognized until the latest art came around. But that is to be told in our next tale. _


End file.
